An experimental investigation into the transmission of antivax attitudes using a fictional health controversy

Jiménez, Ángel V.; Stubbersfield, Joseph M.; Tehrani, Jamshid J.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.032

Cited by 27 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Like Connolly and Reb [27], then, we are sceptical of the existence of omission bias as applied to vaccination, especially in light of the results of a recent study [20]. This study use a different experimental procedure, the method of serial reproduction [51,52], and similarly found no support for the omission bias.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…that make them especially "sticky" in human minds [60]. Importantly, the same characteristics of these messages might also be used to promote vaccination [20,61], providing a more optimistic prospect for countering anti-vaccination information.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These perceptual and memory effects relating to vaccine-related information (symptoms and side effects) would play a key role in the retention and transmission of anti-vaccination messages and opinions. Our study is one of the first experiments exploring the effects of cognitive biases in the recall of vaccine-related information (see also [20,21]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No evidence that omission and confirmation biases affect the perception and recall of vaccine-related information

2020

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Despite the spectacular success of vaccines in preventing infectious diseases, fears about their safety and other anti-vaccination claims are widespread. To better understand how such fears and claims persist and spread, we must understand how they are perceived and recalled. One influence on the perception and recall of vaccination-related information might be universal cognitive biases acting against vaccination. An omission bias describes the tendency to perceive as worse, and recall better, bad outcomes resulting from commissions (e.g. vaccine side effects) compared to the same bad outcomes resulting from omissions (e.g. symptoms of vaccine preventable diseases). Another factor influencing the perception and recall of vaccination-related information might be people's attitudes towards vaccines. A confirmation bias would mean that pre-existing pro-vaccination attitudes positively predict perceptions of severity and recall of symptoms of vaccine preventable diseases and negatively predict perceptions of severity and recall of vaccine side effects. To test for these hypothesized biases, 202 female participants aged 18-60 (M = 38.15, SD = 10.37) completed an online experiment with a between-subjects experimental design. Participants imagined that they had a 1-year old child who suffered from either vaccine side effects (Commission Condition) or symptoms of a vaccine-preventable disease (Omission Condition). They then rated a list of symptoms/side effects for their perceived severity on a 7-point Likert scale. Finally, they completed a surprise recall test in which they recalled the symptoms/side effects previously rated. An additional scale was used to measure their attitudes towards vaccines. Contrary to the hypotheses, perceptions of severity and the recall of symptoms/side effects were not associated with experimental condition, failing to support the omission bias, nor did they interact with attitudes towards vaccines, failing to support the confirmation bias. This cast doubt on the possibility that the spread of anti-vaccination claims can be explained by these particular universal cognitive biases.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No evidence that omission and confirmation biases affect the perception and recall of vaccine-related information

2020

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“…The 'knowledge' is transmitted along linear chains of confederates; researchers find that experience-based views held by a parent (including the benefits of vaccines) is far better transmitted than the medical-based view held by the doctor. The narrative and the source influences vaccine uptake [58]; trying to counteract vaccine hesitancy (let alone unbridled anti-vaccine pseudoscience) with authoritarian narratives does not move the needle (literally and figuratively) [59,60].…”

Section: Narrative Medicine At Largementioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative Medicine Meets Planetary Health: Mindsets Matter in the Anthropocene

Prescott

Logan²

2019

Challenges

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The emerging concept of planetary health—defined as the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems (social, political, and otherwise)—emphasizes that the health of human civilization is intricately connected to the health of natural systems within the Earth’s biosphere. In the clinical setting, narrative medicine underscores the importance of absorbing, reflecting upon, and responding to the narratives—the stories—conveyed by patients. Education and interventions using the tenets of narrative medicine have demonstrated value to both patient and provider. Given the grand interconnected challenges of our time—compounded by misinformation and quasi-scientific narratives propagated by the ideology of neoliberalism—we argue that the principles and practice of narrative medicine can be applied on a larger scale, one with planetary health in mind. The role of beliefs, expectations, and agency—mindsets—in the link between narrative and planetary health are emphasized. We use a story of our own to demonstrate that the biological buffering capacity in response to a fast-food meal does not sit on a level socioeconomic playing field. Patient, community, and global health narratives are melding with powerful narratives set by commercial entities. The success of planetary health as a new concept will be strengthened by attention to the ways in which storytelling can influence positive change. No less important is an understanding of the ways in which stories contribute to what ails person, place, and planet.

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“…All statistical analyses were conducted with Bayesian package brms (Bürkner, 2017) in R 3.5.3 (R Core Team, 2019). As in our previous transmission chain experiments (Jiménez & Mesoudi, 2019, Preprint;Jiménez, Stubbersfield, & Tehrani, 2018), all the regression models were multilevel with intercepts varying by chain. We treated generation as a monotonic variable (Bürkner & Charpentier, 2018) as recall decreases over generations but the amount of the decrease varies between adjacent generations (Jiménez & Mesoudi, 2019, July 10).…”

Section: 5-coding and Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental Simulation of the Cultural Transmission of Prestige and Dominance Social Rank Cues

Jiménez¹,

Mesoudi²

2019

Preprint

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Informal social hierarchies within small human groups are argued to be based on prestige, dominance, or a combination of these two (Henrich & Gil-White, 2001). Prestige-based hierarchies entail the ordering of individuals by the level of admiration and respect they receive from others due to their competence within valued domains. This type of hierarchy provides benefits for subordinates such as high-quality social learning opportunities and both private and public goods. In contrast, dominance-based hierarchies entail the ordering of individuals by their capacity to win fights, coerce and intimidate others. This type of hierarchy produces costs in subordinates due to its aggressive and intimidating nature. Given the benefits and costs associated with these types of social hierarchies for subordinates, we hypothesized that prestige and dominance cues are better recalled and transmitted than social rank cues that do not elicit high prestige or dominance associations (here medium social rank cues). Assuming that for the majority of the population who are not already at the top of the social hierarchy it is more important to avoid the costs of dominance-based hierarchies than to obtain the benefits of prestige-based hierarchies, we hypothesized that dominance cues are better transmitted than prestige cues. We conducted a recall-based transmission chain experiment with 30 chains of four generations each (N=120). Participants read and recalled three descriptions of prestigious, dominant and medium social rank footballers, and their recall was then passed to the next participant within their chain. As predicted, we found that both prestige cues and dominance cues were better transmitted than medium social rank cues. However, we did not find support for our prediction of the better transmission of dominance cues over prestige cues. We discuss whether the results might be explain by a specific social-rank content transmission bias or by a more general emotional content transmission bias.

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An experimental investigation into the transmission of antivax attitudes using a fictional health controversy

Abstract: The results suggest that vaccination campaigns may be made more effective by including personal experiences of the negative consequences of non-vaccination.

Cited by 27 publications

References 22 publications

No evidence that omission and confirmation biases affect the perception and recall of vaccine-related information

No evidence that omission and confirmation biases affect the perception and recall of vaccine-related information

Narrative Medicine Meets Planetary Health: Mindsets Matter in the Anthropocene

An Experimental Simulation of the Cultural Transmission of Prestige and Dominance Social Rank Cues

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